Janet Lou (Johnson) Cabel

Janet Lou (Johnson) Cabel, age 89, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. She was born January 31,1933 in Vincennes to Dr. John Lawrence Johnson and Lillian Wilhelmina Duesenberg.

Janet graduated from Vincennes Lincoln High School and Indiana University with both a bachelors and masters degree in fine arts. After graduating from IU, she began a 48-year teaching career, starting in Bicknell schools, then L&M in Lyons and then to White River Valley in Switz City until her retirement. Art was her passion and she experimented in several mediums including oils, watercolors, pottery, weaving, metal smithing, hooking and sewing. Having all these mediums to draw from made her art classes extremely popular with her students.

On December 30, 1955 she married Joseph Marion Cabel. Together they had four children, Joe (Jean), Claire (Charlie), Dan (Adrienne) and Jon (Holly). They had seven grandchildren, Lillian, Joe, Kate, Emma, Austin, Benjamin, and Charlie Joe; and two great-grandchildren, Augustus and Leopold. Jan loved crafting with her grandchildren as they all got to spend extended time with her doing projects. (Ben is currently studying art in college).

During the summers, Jan was a swimming coach with her husband for the Linton Swim Club. While she seemed to like the teaching, organizing and bus trips, she spent many events with her fingers in her ears as the excitement was a little too much. She loved to garden during the summers raising heirloom vegetables and flowers which she had an incredible talent for arranging.

During the school year, Jan was the sponsor for the Pep Club. Over 100 students were in the club so, of course, she made reversible vests in two colors for everyone to wear, one side gold and the other black so they could spell L&M in the stands. She also made the team mascot (an Indian brave) a giant head to wear out of paper mache.

Along with her husband, they were the class sponsors for the junior and senior classes. That meant Jan’s art skills, as well as the students, were pushed to the max designing the decorations for prom, homecoming and graduation. She also was the yearbook sponsor, which combined her skill at graphic art (her least favorite) and her angst with deadlines.

Deadlines just don’t suit an artist.

Jan expanded her repertoire in the 90s to felting and creating Santas. Many in Greene County cherish the personalized Santas she made and the dolls she hand-felted. Hooking and traveling to shows and sharing time with other hookers was her passion in retirement. She created elaborate hangings and rugs that her children, in particular, cherish. In retirement, Jan enjoyed her membership in the Daviess County Wool Guild and the Progressive Women’s Club in Newberry.

A Celebration of Life will be held in Lyons in April. A time, date and venue will be announced soon. If you can, stop by and share a story, although there are too many to tell in one night.